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Ditson Conductor's Award
The Ditson Conductor's Award, established in 1945, is the oldest award honoring conductors for their commitment to the performance of American music. The US$5,000 purse is endowed by the Alice M. Ditson Fund at Columbia University, increased in 1999 from US$1,000. The Ditson Conductor's Award was established five years after the 30 April 1940 death of Alice M. Ditson, widow of music publisher Charles Healy Ditson and daughter-in-law of Oliver Ditson, founder of the publishing house that bore his name. Her will bequested $400,000 (equivalent to $ million in ) to Columbia University was for "the encouragement and aide of musicians." From this was born fellowships, public hearings, publication of the work of talented musicians and the Ditson Conductor's Award. Ditson Conductor's Award recipients *1945 Howard Hanson *1946 Léon Barzin *1947 Alfred Wallenstein *1948 Dean Dixon *1949 Thor Johnson *1950 Izler Solomon *1951 Robert Whitney *1952 Leopold Stokowski *1953 Walte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or Choir, choral concert. It has been defined as "the art of directing the simultaneous performance of several players or singers by the use of gesture." The primary duties of the conductor are to interpret the Sheet music, score in a way that reflects the specific indications in that score, set the tempo, ensure correct entries by Musical ensemble, ensemble members, and "shape" the musical phrasing, phrasing where appropriate. Conductors communicate with their musicians primarily through hand gestures, usually with the aid of a Baton (conducting), baton, and may use other gestures or signals such as facial expression and eye contact. A conductor usually supplements their direction with verbal instructions to their musicians in rehearsal. The conductor typically stands on a raised podium with a large music stand for the full score, which contains the musical notation for all the instruments or voices. S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Howard Mitchell
Howard Mitchell (11 March 1911 – 22 June 1988) was an American cellist and conductor who was born in Lyons, Nebraska and died in Ormond Beach, Florida. He was principal conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra from 1949 to 1969. According to music critic Ted Libbey, Mitchell "personified the optimism that permeated Washington and America after World War II; he socialized, schmoozed and charmed the ladies of high Washington society, fitting right in, playing the role of music director as he played the cello. He saw the symphony as a necessary component of the city's social and cultural life, an institution to be supported by the enlightened few and used to educate and enrich the many." Born in Nebraska, Mitchell attended the Peabody Conservatory and graduated with honors from the Curtis Institute of Music in 1935. Mitchell joined the National Symphony Orchestra as principal cellist in 1933. In addition to playing with the NSO, Mitchell made his conducting debut ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stanisław Skrowaczewski
Stanislaw Pawel Stefan Jan Sebastian Skrowaczewski (; October 3, 1923 – February 21, 2017) was a Polish-American classical conductor and composer. Biography Skrowaczewski was born in Lwów, Second Polish Republic (now Lviv, Ukraine). His parents were Paweł and Zofia (Karszniewicz) Skrowaczewski."Skrowaczewski, Stanisław." (1996). In ''Who's Who in Polish America''. Ed. Bolesław Wierzbiański. New York: Bicentennial Publishing Corp., 417. His mother, an amateur pianist, began giving him lessons at the age of four, and he composed his first symphony by age eight. The Lwów Philharmonic performed one of his symphonies that same year.Drobnicki, John. (2011). "Skrowaczewski, Stanisław," in ''The Polish American Encyclopedia''. Ed. James S. Pula. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 486–487. He gave his first piano recital at age eleven, and then, at age thirteen, he conducted and was the soloist in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor. He gave up any thought of pursuing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis Lane
Louis Gardner Lane (December 25, 1923 – February 15, 2016) was an American conductor. Born in Eagle Pass, Texas, Lane studied composition with Kent Kennan at the University of Texas at Austin where he earned his bachelor's in music degree in 1943, and with Bohuslav Martinů at the Tanglewood Music Center (summer 1946), and with Bernard Rogers at the Eastman School of Music (master's degree in music, 1947). He also studied opera with Sarah Caldwell (1950). He was apprentice conductor to George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra in 1947. He became assistant conductor there 1955-1960 and associate conductor 1960-1970 and resident conductor 1970-1973. A comment made by George Szell to Lane in 1957 about the eccentric pianist Glenn Gould became quite famous: "That nut's a genius". Gould requested Lane to accompany his subsequent performances in Cleveland, and Lane's Canadian conducting debut was made in 1960 at the Vancouver Festival with Gould. Lane's programming with the Cle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maurice Abravanel
Maurice Abravanel (January 6, 1903 – September 22, 1993) was an American classical music conductor. He is remembered as the conductor of the Utah Symphony for over 30 years. Life Abravanel was born in Salonika, Rumelia Eyalet, Ottoman Empire (modern Thessaloniki, Greece). He came from an illustrious Sephardic Jewish family, which was expelled from Spain in 1492 (see Isaac Abrabanel). Abravanel's ancestors settled in Salonika in 1517, and his parents were both born there. In 1909, the Abravanel family moved to Lausanne, Switzerland, where his father, Edouard de Abravanel, was a successful pharmacist. For several years, the Abravanels lived in the same house as Ernest Ansermet, the conductor of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. The young Abravanel played four-hand piano arrangements with Ansermet, began to compose, and met composers such as Darius Milhaud and Igor Stravinsky. He was passionate about music and knew he wanted a career as a musician. He became the pi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gunther Schuller
Gunther Alexander Schuller (November 22, 1925June 21, 2015) was an American composer, conductor, horn player, author, historian, educator, publisher, and jazz musician. Biography and works Early years Schuller was born in Queens, New York City, the son of German parents Elsie (Bernartz) and Arthur E. Schuller, a violinist with the New York Philharmonic. He studied at the Saint Thomas Choir School and became an accomplished French horn player and flute player. At age 15, he was already playing horn professionally with the American Ballet Theatre (1943) followed by an appointment as principal hornist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (1943–45), and then the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York, where he stayed until 1959. During his youth, he attended the Precollege Division at the Manhattan School of Music, later going on to teach at the school. But, already a high school dropout because he wanted to play professionally, Schuller never obtained a degree from any ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frederick Fennell
Frederick Fennell (July 2, 1914 – December 7, 2004) was an American conductor and one of the primary figures who promoted the Eastman Wind Ensemble as a performing group. He was also influential as a band pedagogue, and greatly affected the field of music education in the US and abroad. In Fennell's New York Times obituary, colleague Jerry F. Junkin was quoted as saying "He was arguably the most famous band conductor since John Philip Sousa."Wakin, Daniel J''Frederick Fennell, 90, Innovative Band Conductor, Dies'' The New York Times, December 9, 2004. Retrieved March 23, 2010. Early life Fennell was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He chose piccolo as his primary instrument at the age of seven, as drummer in the fife-and-drum corps at the family's encampment calleCamp Zeke He owned his first drum set at age ten. In the John Adams High School orchestra, Fennell performed as the kettledrummer and served as the band's drum major. His studies at the Interlochen Arts Camp (then the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Igor Buketoff
Igor Konstantin Buketoff (29 May 19157 September 2001) was an American conducting, conductor, arranger and teacher. He had a special affinity with Russian classical music and with Sergei Rachmaninoff in particular. He also strongly promoted United Kingdom, British contemporary music, and new music in general. Biography Buketoff was born in Hartford, Connecticut on 29 May 1915, the son of a Russian Orthodox Church, Russian Orthodox priest. He liked to refer to himself as "the last active conductor with pre-Revolutionary blood in his veins". His father knew Sergei Rachmaninoff and had been asked by the composer to assemble the choir for the 1927 world premiere of his ''Three Russian Songs, Op. 41 (Rachmaninoff), Three Russian Folk Songs'', Op. 41, using the Bass (voice type), basso profundos among the Orthodox clergy. Igor attended the rehearsals for the premiere and was told by his father that the conductor, Leopold Stokowski, had his own ideas about the tempo for the final song ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Strickland (conductor)
William Remsen Strickland (January 25, 1914November 17, 1991) was an American conductor and organist, noted for his lifelong promotion of American composers. Career Strickland was born in Defiance, Ohio, on January 25, 1914. As a young organist, he served at several prominent Episcopal churches in New York, including Christ Church (Bronxville), Calvary Church (Manhattan), and St. Bartholomew's Church (Manhattan). Strickland served as guest conductor for the Cathedral Choral Society of Washington, D.C. during World War II. In 1946 he helped found and went on to conduct the Nashville Symphony for five seasons, until 1951. Later he conducted the Oratorio Society of New York. Strickland was noted for his performances and recordings of contemporary classical works by American composers such as Samuel Barber, John J. Becker, Jack Beeson, William Bergsma, John Alden Carpenter, Henry Cowell, Norman Dello Joio, Vivian Fine, William Flanagan, Miriam Gideon, Irwin Heilner, Al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jacob Avshalomov
Jacob Avshalomov (March 28, 1919 – April 25, 2013) was a composer and conductor. Early life and education Jacob Avshalomov was born on March 28, 1919, in Tsingtao, China. Note: Profile by David Campbell. His father was Aaron Avshalomov, the Siberian-born composer known for "oriental musical materials cast in western forms and media"; his mother was from San Francisco. Jacob received musical instruction from his father starting at a young age. At eight years old Avshalomov visited Portland from China with his parents and were guests of Jacques Gershkovitch for several months in 1927. Note: Profile by David Campbell. Aaron Avshalomov had become friends with Gershkovitch in the Orient (Jacob was three years old when the two met). However, because they did not hold permanent visas the family returned to China. Avshalomov graduated from British and American schools before age fifteen, then worked as a factory supervisor in Tientsin, Shanghai and Beijing over a span of four year ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emerson Buckley
Emerson Buckley (14 April 1916 – 17 November 1989) was an American orchestra conductor. Biography Buckley was born in New York City. After high school, he attended Columbia University, graduating in 1936. He began his conducting career that same year, obtaining a post with the Columbia Grand Opera Company. He spent 10 years as conductor of the Mutual Broadcasting System's in-house orchestra. He was a frequent guest conductor both in the United States and in other countries. Florida years Buckley left New York City in 1950 to establish a permanent residence in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He was first named music director, and later artistic director, of the Greater Miami Opera. He held that post until 1985, when he retired due to ill health. During that time he "was instrumental in making it one of the most respected companies in the country". [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Milton Katims
Milton Katims (June 24, 1909February 27, 2006) was an American violist and conductor. He was music director of the Seattle Symphony for 22 years (1954–76). In that time he added more than 75 works, made recordings, premiered new pieces and led the orchestra on several tours. He expanded the orchestra's series of family and suburban outreach concerts. He is also known for his numerous transcriptions and arrangements for viola. Career Katims was born in Brooklyn and educated at Columbia University. His parents were from Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His father changed the family surname from Katimsky some years after he arrived in New York. He started as a violinist but the Belgian-born violist, conductor and educator Léon Barzin advised him to switch to viola. Katims played with a number of chamber music ensembles, including the New York Piano Quartet, and was an extra violist with the notable Budapest String Quartet with which he collaborated for 15 years and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
